User talk:Aramith

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Regarding the article "billiard balls"

Hi,

I work with the company Saluc, and we test all kind of balls that are in the market. We know for sure that the Aramith balls are the only one produced in phenolic resin. There is no other pool balls made in phenolic or phenolic-based resin. Beside Aramith balls made in Belgium, virtually all pool balls are produced in China and in polyester ("virtually" because there are very few quantities produced in accrylic. these balls are transparent and they don't even reach the weight specifications). The distributors of such polyester balls try to hide the material by choosing a trade name. FYI, Saluc produces the Centennial balls for Brunswick. Thank you.

[The previously unsigned commented was added by Aramith (talk · contribs), 16:18, 29 May 2007.]

The article as it stands now is correct as far as the third-party sources to date have been able to provide facts that we can cite. I've added the fact that Saluc also makes the Brunswick balls (I knew that already, but for some reason the article didn't say so.) Saluc's own marketing materials are not a reliable source, and using them as references would be a conflict of interest. I was also aware of the acrylic balls (and their problems), but again the article hadn't mentioned that yet, so I also added that. We cannot add anything to the effect "only Saluc uses a phenolic compound, and everyone else is lying and are really using polyester". We simply have no reliable source for such a claim, much less that all of them are produced in China. I'm sure that reps from Elephant, Vigma and others would take issue with some of your statements. :-) That Saluc does its own testing is interesting, but not of any use to Wikipedia (conflict of interest again; the testing is not independent). That some companies make polyester balls but use tradenames instead was already covered in the article. Anyway, the article already states that only Saluc uses phenolic resin, per se. — SMcCandlish [talk] [cont] ‹(-¿-)› 01:16, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]